He attended the schools of his native town in early years, and at the age of eighteen, under the influence of the gold fever, made an overland trip to California with an ox team, leaving Greenfield in April, 1851 and arrived at his destination in October. He went immediately to the mines of Sonoma County, where he worked for three years; his expectations of sudden wealth, however, like those of many others, failing of realization. He returned East by way of the Isthmus; but, before settling down in his native place, he went to Wisconsin, where he remained for a year and a half, at the end of which time, not altogether satisfied with that part of the country, he returned to Colrain, and in 1857 purchased the farm that he now occupies. He is extensively engaged in farming and fruit growing, having a productive orchard which yields over four hundred barrels of apples yearly; he also devotes considerable attention to dairying interests. He is a republican in politics, has served as selectman and assessor, and a special county commissioner for several years (Severance, B. Frank. Genealogy and biography of the descendants of Walter Stewart of Scotland and of John Stewart who came to America in 1718 and settled in Londonderry, N.H. Greenfield, Mass. : T. Morey & Son, 1905, pg. 156-157).